MOST PROGRAMS OF RADIO FREE EUROPE TO END

New York Times News ServiceCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Acting swiftly to carry out President Clinton's plan to merge all of the government's international broadcasting operations, Radio Free Europe is set to announce termination early next week of most of its foreign language transmissions.

Since the early 1950s, Radio Free Europe and its sister station, Radio Liberty, have been broadcasting from Munich, Germany, to what was the Soviet Union and five of its allies.

Their transmissions were intended to substitute for the free press that was missing. With the fall of communist governments from 1989 through 1991 and the end of the Cold War the rationale for the Munich stations faded.

Radio officials in Washington and Munich said Radio Free Europe broadcasts to Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the three Baltic states will be ended.

Radio Free Europe broadcasts in Bulgarian and Romanian will continue. Some Voice of America broadcasts to the successor states of the former Soviet Union will be terminated, while those of Radio Liberty will continue.

About 600 employees at Radio Free Europe and 600 at VOA will be affected, the officials said.